Ruiz vs Joshua 2 was most-streamed event on DAZN in 2019

Four boxing events made DAZN’s top 10 most streamed list for 2019, including the biggest of the year, the Dec. 7 rematch between Andy Ruiz Jr and Anthony Joshua from Saudi Arabia.

The results are from all DAZN services around the world, not just the United States, to be clear. DAZN is also live in Austria, Brazil, Canada, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, and Switzerland.

Here are the top 10 streamed events on DAZN in 2019:

1. Ruiz vs Joshua II (Dec. 7)
2. UEFA Champions League: Tottenham vs Liverpool (June 1)
3. UEFA Champions League: Liverpool vs Barcelona (May 7)
4. Canelo vs Kovalev (Nov. 2)
5. KSI vs Logan Paul II (Nov. 9)
6. UEFA Champions League: Tottenham vs Bayern Munich (Oct. 1)
7. Serie A: Milan vs Internazionale (Sept. 21)
8. UEFA Champions League: Ajax vs Tottenham (May 8)
9. UEFA Champions League: Barcelona vs Liverpool (May 1)
10. Canelo vs Jacobs (May 4)

The list proves a couple things, I think, as far as boxing is concerned, since obviously I care about boxing and not so much the UEFA Champions League or Serie A. First off, boxing absolutely still has an audience around the world. Will it ever be consistently, super mainstream again, particularly in the US? Almost certainly not, no.

But boxing is a sport that really can be SO easy to get people to care about if you have the right fight or at least the right fighter and story. It’s a legendary, long-running sport, and for as intricately as you can seek to understand its ins and outs, in the ring and on the outside, it’s very simple: two fighters show up trying to win. One-on-one.

The other thing is also simple: nothing will ever beat a big-time heavyweight boxing fight with a story. Ruiz-Joshua 2 had a great story, and everyone cared. It was, all in all, the biggest fight of 2019.

Canelo Alvarez appearing twice is no surprise, his fights are always events. And, boy, I mean, you can’t ask why they ran KSI-Logan Paul anymore. You just can’t. It’s obvious why they ran it. It’s obvious why it was the main event. It’s obvious why they’re going to keep going into that realm until people stop caring at all. You don’t have to like it, mind you, but even considering most people who tuned in were casual beyond casual about an interest in boxing, and most of them probably only tuned in for the main event, I think it’s probably still a decent bet that more people saw Devin Haney fight that night than when he fought Zaur Abdullaev in September or Antonio Moran in May, also on DAZN.